Final Ratings: Dayton-Syracuse Tops Turner Sports' Early Men's Tourney Games

TBS’ Dayton-Syracuse men’s basketball tourney game last Saturday night averaged 4.02 million viewers, which was the best among all cable TV games over the first three rounds. The 4.02 million viewers also marks Turner Sports’ fifth-best men’s tourney audience for a first-, second- or third-round game since it began airing the event in ’11. TNT also averaged 3.74 million viewers for North Carolina-Providence last Friday night, marking Turner’s seventh-best audience for a game during the first three rounds (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).

FROM THE PROVINCES: TSN averaged 352,000 viewers for the DC United-Toronto FC match last Saturday, making it the most-viewed MLS match ever on English-language TV in Canada. The previous high was 335,000 viewers for the ’12 Western Conference Wild Card matchup featuring Galaxy-Whitecaps. The audience for TFC’s home opener was 18% higher than the 299,000 viewers that watched the club’s season-opener against Sounders FC last week. Meanwhile, TSN averaged 1.13 million viewers for the Switzerland-Canada finale at the Ford Women’s World Curling Championships last Sunday, marking the most-watched matchup ever for the event (TSN).

NOTES: ESPN’s total reach for coverage of the ’14 NCAA D-I Wrestling Championships was up 39% over last year. The 20 hours of coverage across ESPN and ESPNU averaged 253,000 viewers (ESPN).

The charts below list final ratings from recent sports telecasts. Figures for ABC were unavailable at presstime.